Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a virtual cottage industry in all things “Abrahamic.” Directly proportionate to the rise of religious exclusivism, perhaps best epitomized by the attacks ...
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Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a virtual cottage industry in all things “Abrahamic.” Directly proportionate to the rise of religious exclusivism, perhaps best epitomized by the attacks of 9/11 and the current problems plaguing the Middle East and Afghanistan, there has been a real desire both to find and map a set of commonalities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This is often done, however, not for the sake of scholarship, but interfaith dialogue. Recently, however, the term “Abrahamic religions” has been used with exceeding frequency in the academy. We now regularly encounter academic books, conferences, and even positions (including endowed chairs) devoted to the so-called “Abrahamic religions.” Often lost in contemporary discussions of “Abrahamic religions” is a set of crucial questions: whence does the term “Abrahamic religions” derive? Who created it and for what purposes? What sort of intellectual work is it perceived to perform? In order to answer these and related questions, the book examines the creation and dissemination of this category. Part genealogical and part analytical, this study seeks to raise and answer questions about the appropriateness and usefulness of employing “Abrahamic religions” as a vehicle for understanding and classifying data. In so doing, this book can be taken as a case study that examines the construction of categories within the academic study of religion, showing how the categories we employ can become more an impediment than an expedient to understanding.Less

Abrahamic Religions : On the Uses and Abuses of History

Aaron W. Hughes

Published in print: 2012-11-15

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a virtual cottage industry in all things “Abrahamic.” Directly proportionate to the rise of religious exclusivism, perhaps best epitomized by the attacks of 9/11 and the current problems plaguing the Middle East and Afghanistan, there has been a real desire both to find and map a set of commonalities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This is often done, however, not for the sake of scholarship, but interfaith dialogue. Recently, however, the term “Abrahamic religions” has been used with exceeding frequency in the academy. We now regularly encounter academic books, conferences, and even positions (including endowed chairs) devoted to the so-called “Abrahamic religions.” Often lost in contemporary discussions of “Abrahamic religions” is a set of crucial questions: whence does the term “Abrahamic religions” derive? Who created it and for what purposes? What sort of intellectual work is it perceived to perform? In order to answer these and related questions, the book examines the creation and dissemination of this category. Part genealogical and part analytical, this study seeks to raise and answer questions about the appropriateness and usefulness of employing “Abrahamic religions” as a vehicle for understanding and classifying data. In so doing, this book can be taken as a case study that examines the construction of categories within the academic study of religion, showing how the categories we employ can become more an impediment than an expedient to understanding.

In this work of qualitative sociology, Anna Strhan offers an in-depth study of the everyday lives of members of a conservative evangelical Anglican church in London. ‘St John’s’ is a vibrant church, ...
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In this work of qualitative sociology, Anna Strhan offers an in-depth study of the everyday lives of members of a conservative evangelical Anglican church in London. ‘St John’s’ is a vibrant church, with a congregation of young and middle-aged members, one in which the life of the mind is important, and faith is both a comfort and a struggle—a way of questioning the order of things within society and for themselves. The congregants of St John’s see themselves as increasingly countercultural, moving against the grain of wider culture in London and in British society, yet they take pride in this, and see it as a central element of being Christian. This book reveals the processes through which the congregants of St John’s learn to understand themselves as ‘aliens and strangers’ in the world, demonstrating the precariousness of their projects of staking out boundaries of moral distinctiveness. Through focusing on their interactions within and outside the church, Strhan shows how the everyday experiences of these evangelicals are simultaneously shaped by the secular norms of their workplaces and other city spaces and by the moral and temporal orientations of their faith that rub against these. Thus their self-identification as ‘aliens and strangers’ both articulates and constructs an ambition to be different from others around them in the city, rooted in a consciousness of the extent to which their hopes, concerns, and longings are simultaneously shaped by their being in the world.Less

Aliens and Strangers? : The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals

Anna Strhan

Published in print: 2015-06-01

In this work of qualitative sociology, Anna Strhan offers an in-depth study of the everyday lives of members of a conservative evangelical Anglican church in London. ‘St John’s’ is a vibrant church, with a congregation of young and middle-aged members, one in which the life of the mind is important, and faith is both a comfort and a struggle—a way of questioning the order of things within society and for themselves. The congregants of St John’s see themselves as increasingly countercultural, moving against the grain of wider culture in London and in British society, yet they take pride in this, and see it as a central element of being Christian. This book reveals the processes through which the congregants of St John’s learn to understand themselves as ‘aliens and strangers’ in the world, demonstrating the precariousness of their projects of staking out boundaries of moral distinctiveness. Through focusing on their interactions within and outside the church, Strhan shows how the everyday experiences of these evangelicals are simultaneously shaped by the secular norms of their workplaces and other city spaces and by the moral and temporal orientations of their faith that rub against these. Thus their self-identification as ‘aliens and strangers’ both articulates and constructs an ambition to be different from others around them in the city, rooted in a consciousness of the extent to which their hopes, concerns, and longings are simultaneously shaped by their being in the world.

By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at ...
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By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at least, is not authorized by a major religious tradition. From Eckhart Tolle and Andrew Cohen to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless such spiritual teachers—both male and female—that claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon of religious immediatism emerged, especially in American religion. This phenomenon has many precedents and a long history. From Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman through the twentieth century, the Beat movement, the psychedelic revolution, Timothy Leary, the influence of Hindu gurus to the New Age movement, Versluis tells the enthralling saga of how contemporary American immediatism came into being. In American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (1993), Versluis surveyed how Asian religions helped shape the entire Transcendentalist intellectual movement, and in The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance (2001), he showed how Western esoteric traditions contributed much to mid-nineteenth-century American literature and literary religion. In American Gurus, Versluis shows how the confluence of Asian religions and Western mysticism come together to produce the continuing and fascinating saga that culminates in the phenomenon of contemporary “spontaneously enlightened” American gurus.Less

American Gurus : From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion

Arthur Versluis

Published in print: 2014-05-01

By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at least, is not authorized by a major religious tradition. From Eckhart Tolle and Andrew Cohen to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless such spiritual teachers—both male and female—that claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon of religious immediatism emerged, especially in American religion. This phenomenon has many precedents and a long history. From Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman through the twentieth century, the Beat movement, the psychedelic revolution, Timothy Leary, the influence of Hindu gurus to the New Age movement, Versluis tells the enthralling saga of how contemporary American immediatism came into being. In American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (1993), Versluis surveyed how Asian religions helped shape the entire Transcendentalist intellectual movement, and in The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance (2001), he showed how Western esoteric traditions contributed much to mid-nineteenth-century American literature and literary religion. In American Gurus, Versluis shows how the confluence of Asian religions and Western mysticism come together to produce the continuing and fascinating saga that culminates in the phenomenon of contemporary “spontaneously enlightened” American gurus.

In this study, Mark McInroy argues that the ‘spiritual senses’ play a crucial yet previously unappreciated role in the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar. The doctrine of the spiritual ...
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In this study, Mark McInroy argues that the ‘spiritual senses’ play a crucial yet previously unappreciated role in the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar. The doctrine of the spiritual senses typically claims that human beings can be made capable of perceiving non-corporeal, ‘spiritual’ realities. After a lengthy period of disuse, Balthasar recovers the doctrine in the mid-twentieth century and articulates it afresh in his theological aesthetics. At the heart of this project stands the task of perceiving the absolute beauty of the divine form through which God is revealed to human beings. Although extensive scholarly attention has focused on Balthasar’s understanding of revelation, beauty, and form, what remains curiously under-studied is his model of the perceptual faculties through which one beholds the form that God reveals. McInroy claims that Balthasar draws upon the tradition of the spiritual senses in order to develop the means through which one perceives the ‘splendour’ of divine revelation. McInroy further argues that, in playing this role, the spiritual senses function as an indispensable component of Balthasar’s unique, aesthetic resolution to the high-profile debates in modern Catholic theology between Neo-Scholastic theologians and their opponents. As a third option between Neo-Scholastic ‘extrinsicism’, which arguably insists on the authority of revelation to the point of disaffecting the human being, and ‘immanentism’, which reduces God’s revelation to human categories in the name of relevance, McInroy proposes that Balthasar’s model of spiritual perception allows one to be both delighted and astounded by the glory of God’s revelation.Less

Balthasar on the Spiritual Senses : Perceiving Splendour

Mark McInroy

Published in print: 2014-06-05

In this study, Mark McInroy argues that the ‘spiritual senses’ play a crucial yet previously unappreciated role in the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar. The doctrine of the spiritual senses typically claims that human beings can be made capable of perceiving non-corporeal, ‘spiritual’ realities. After a lengthy period of disuse, Balthasar recovers the doctrine in the mid-twentieth century and articulates it afresh in his theological aesthetics. At the heart of this project stands the task of perceiving the absolute beauty of the divine form through which God is revealed to human beings. Although extensive scholarly attention has focused on Balthasar’s understanding of revelation, beauty, and form, what remains curiously under-studied is his model of the perceptual faculties through which one beholds the form that God reveals. McInroy claims that Balthasar draws upon the tradition of the spiritual senses in order to develop the means through which one perceives the ‘splendour’ of divine revelation. McInroy further argues that, in playing this role, the spiritual senses function as an indispensable component of Balthasar’s unique, aesthetic resolution to the high-profile debates in modern Catholic theology between Neo-Scholastic theologians and their opponents. As a third option between Neo-Scholastic ‘extrinsicism’, which arguably insists on the authority of revelation to the point of disaffecting the human being, and ‘immanentism’, which reduces God’s revelation to human categories in the name of relevance, McInroy proposes that Balthasar’s model of spiritual perception allows one to be both delighted and astounded by the glory of God’s revelation.

Over the last two decades, scientific accounts of religion have received a great deal of scholarly and popular attention both because of their intrinsic interest and because they are widely viewed as ...
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Over the last two decades, scientific accounts of religion have received a great deal of scholarly and popular attention both because of their intrinsic interest and because they are widely viewed as constituting a threat to the religion they analyse. This book aims to describe and discuss these scientific accounts as well as to assess their implications. The volume begins with essays by leading scientists in the field, describing these accounts and discussing evidence in their favour. Philosophical and theological reflections on these accounts follow, offered by leading philosophers, theologians, and scientists. This diverse group of scholars address some fascinating underlying questions: Do scientific accounts of religion undermine the justification of religious belief? Do such accounts show religion to be an accidental by-product of our evolutionary development? And, whilst we seem naturally disposed toward religion, would we fare better or worse without it? Bringing together dissenting perspectives, this provocative collection will serve to freshly illuminate on-going debate on these perennial questions.Less

The Believing Primate : Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion

Published in print: 2009-03-12

Over the last two decades, scientific accounts of religion have received a great deal of scholarly and popular attention both because of their intrinsic interest and because they are widely viewed as constituting a threat to the religion they analyse. This book aims to describe and discuss these scientific accounts as well as to assess their implications. The volume begins with essays by leading scientists in the field, describing these accounts and discussing evidence in their favour. Philosophical and theological reflections on these accounts follow, offered by leading philosophers, theologians, and scientists. This diverse group of scholars address some fascinating underlying questions: Do scientific accounts of religion undermine the justification of religious belief? Do such accounts show religion to be an accidental by-product of our evolutionary development? And, whilst we seem naturally disposed toward religion, would we fare better or worse without it? Bringing together dissenting perspectives, this provocative collection will serve to freshly illuminate on-going debate on these perennial questions.

Since the rise of critical biblical study in the nineteenth century, there has been a revolution in the way that we interpret the Bible and in the methods we employ to facilitate our reading. ...
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Since the rise of critical biblical study in the nineteenth century, there has been a revolution in the way that we interpret the Bible and in the methods we employ to facilitate our reading. Professor John Barton has been a major recent influence upon such developments and this volume reflects upon his contribution. A generation of scholars has engaged with, adopted, and further developed Professor Barton's nuanced and careful explication of method, as exemplified particularly in his book Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study. The book divides into two parts. In the first, older methods in biblical studies such as source criticism and textual criticism are reviewed, both as methods and in relation to worked examples. In the second part, newer types of criticism such as sociological, feminist, and post-colonial readings are explored, again in relation to particular texts and examples. The book asks questions about the benefits and shortcomings of the methodological tools in our biblical critical tool-box and about the way texts are themselves brought to life in ever fresh interpretative and often interdisciplinary contexts.Less

Biblical Interpretation and Method : Essays in Honour of John Barton

Published in print: 2013-06-17

Since the rise of critical biblical study in the nineteenth century, there has been a revolution in the way that we interpret the Bible and in the methods we employ to facilitate our reading. Professor John Barton has been a major recent influence upon such developments and this volume reflects upon his contribution. A generation of scholars has engaged with, adopted, and further developed Professor Barton's nuanced and careful explication of method, as exemplified particularly in his book Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study. The book divides into two parts. In the first, older methods in biblical studies such as source criticism and textual criticism are reviewed, both as methods and in relation to worked examples. In the second part, newer types of criticism such as sociological, feminist, and post-colonial readings are explored, again in relation to particular texts and examples. The book asks questions about the benefits and shortcomings of the methodological tools in our biblical critical tool-box and about the way texts are themselves brought to life in ever fresh interpretative and often interdisciplinary contexts.

The fourth-century writer Evagrius of Pontus likens the experience of contemplation to dwelling in a kind of place. “When the mind has put off the old self and shall put on the one born of grace,” ...
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The fourth-century writer Evagrius of Pontus likens the experience of contemplation to dwelling in a kind of place. “When the mind has put off the old self and shall put on the one born of grace,” says Evagrius, “then it will see its own state in the time of prayer resembling sapphire of the color of heaven. This state is called by scripture, the place of God.” This book believes that the ancient tradition of Christian contemplative thought and practice represented by Evagrius has a genuine contribution to make to the world of ecological thought and practice. At the same time, he says, the sense of “the whole” emerging from contemporary ecological discourse has the potential to deepen and expand the classic understanding of contemplative life and practice. One of the striking features of the present historical moment is a deep and pervasive hunger for a less fragmented way of apprehending the world. Attending to these two traditions of thought and practice together, this book argues, can help us recover such an integrated vision of the world. Additionally, there is a growing recognition in the culture at large, and in faith communities in particular, of the need for a response to the ecological crisis that expresses our deepest moral and spiritual values. Drawing on the insights of the early Christian monastics as well as the ecological writings of such figures as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, and many others, this book forges a distinctively contemplative vision of ecological spirituality that could, the book contends, serve to ground the work of ecological restoration.Less

The Blue Sapphire of the Mind : Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

Douglas E. Christie

Published in print: 2012-12-04

The fourth-century writer Evagrius of Pontus likens the experience of contemplation to dwelling in a kind of place. “When the mind has put off the old self and shall put on the one born of grace,” says Evagrius, “then it will see its own state in the time of prayer resembling sapphire of the color of heaven. This state is called by scripture, the place of God.” This book believes that the ancient tradition of Christian contemplative thought and practice represented by Evagrius has a genuine contribution to make to the world of ecological thought and practice. At the same time, he says, the sense of “the whole” emerging from contemporary ecological discourse has the potential to deepen and expand the classic understanding of contemplative life and practice. One of the striking features of the present historical moment is a deep and pervasive hunger for a less fragmented way of apprehending the world. Attending to these two traditions of thought and practice together, this book argues, can help us recover such an integrated vision of the world. Additionally, there is a growing recognition in the culture at large, and in faith communities in particular, of the need for a response to the ecological crisis that expresses our deepest moral and spiritual values. Drawing on the insights of the early Christian monastics as well as the ecological writings of such figures as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, and many others, this book forges a distinctively contemplative vision of ecological spirituality that could, the book contends, serve to ground the work of ecological restoration.

What were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians? This book provides an account of their history. The book argues that, far from being an act of unfathomable religious insanity, the calamitous fire at ...
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What were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians? This book provides an account of their history. The book argues that, far from being an act of unfathomable religious insanity, the calamitous fire at Waco in 1993 was the culmination of a long theological and historical tradition that goes back many decades. The Branch Davidians under David Koresh were an eschatologically confident community that had long expected that the American government, whom they identified as the Lamb-like Beast of the Book of Revelation, would one day arrive to seek to destroy God's remnant people. The end result, the fire, must be seen in this context.Less

The Branch Davidians of Waco : The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect

Kenneth G. C. Newport

Published in print: 2006-04-13

What were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians? This book provides an account of their history. The book argues that, far from being an act of unfathomable religious insanity, the calamitous fire at Waco in 1993 was the culmination of a long theological and historical tradition that goes back many decades. The Branch Davidians under David Koresh were an eschatologically confident community that had long expected that the American government, whom they identified as the Lamb-like Beast of the Book of Revelation, would one day arrive to seek to destroy God's remnant people. The end result, the fire, must be seen in this context.

This book explores central aspects of Calvin’s influence across the centuries and around the world from his lifetime to the present day. The volume offers a perspective on the full scope of the ...
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This book explores central aspects of Calvin’s influence across the centuries and around the world from his lifetime to the present day. The volume offers a perspective on the full scope of the reformer’s impact on the subsequent course of the Protestant tradition and on modern Western civilization more generally. It opens with an examination of Calvin’s theology as the distillation of the first five centuries of Christianity with all its possibilities and limitations. The next four studies focus on Calvin as man and thinker in his sixteenth-century Genevan context, dealing respectively with aristocracy as an orienting principle in Calvin’s own political theory and ecclesiology; Calvin’s notorious passion for work; Calvin’s authorial style, which exercised a crucial influence on French prose; and the particularities of Calvin’s church in Geneva. There follows a study on Calvin’s relations with the Swiss Reformed churches, which gave his system a particular stamp. The seventh study explores the global nature of Calvin’s influence while chapters 8 to 15 branch out into considering various Calvinisms—which the chapters show conclusively to be more or less removed from Calvin’s thought while still claiming his name and label. These include a study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century political Calvinisms, as well as studies of his theological reception from the seventeenth until the nineteenth century. The two final studies deal respectively with the links between the reformer’s thought and the British Evangelicals and with the complex issue of Calvin and South African apartheid.Less

Calvin and His Influence, 1509–2009

Published in print: 2011-09-08

This book explores central aspects of Calvin’s influence across the centuries and around the world from his lifetime to the present day. The volume offers a perspective on the full scope of the reformer’s impact on the subsequent course of the Protestant tradition and on modern Western civilization more generally. It opens with an examination of Calvin’s theology as the distillation of the first five centuries of Christianity with all its possibilities and limitations. The next four studies focus on Calvin as man and thinker in his sixteenth-century Genevan context, dealing respectively with aristocracy as an orienting principle in Calvin’s own political theory and ecclesiology; Calvin’s notorious passion for work; Calvin’s authorial style, which exercised a crucial influence on French prose; and the particularities of Calvin’s church in Geneva. There follows a study on Calvin’s relations with the Swiss Reformed churches, which gave his system a particular stamp. The seventh study explores the global nature of Calvin’s influence while chapters 8 to 15 branch out into considering various Calvinisms—which the chapters show conclusively to be more or less removed from Calvin’s thought while still claiming his name and label. These include a study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century political Calvinisms, as well as studies of his theological reception from the seventeenth until the nineteenth century. The two final studies deal respectively with the links between the reformer’s thought and the British Evangelicals and with the complex issue of Calvin and South African apartheid.

Satanism adopts Satan, the Judeo-Christian representative of evil, as an object of veneration. This book explores the historical origins of this extraordinary “antireligion.” While the concept of ...
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Satanism adopts Satan, the Judeo-Christian representative of evil, as an object of veneration. This book explores the historical origins of this extraordinary “antireligion.” While the concept of people worshipping Satan was actually an invention of Christianity to demonize its internal and external competitors, this dark stereotype created by the Church eventually came to be embraced as a positive (anti)religious identity by some in the modern West. Children of Lucifer traces the long and tortuous trajectory to this unique occurrence, a story that involves Romantic poets, radical anarchists, eccentric esotericists, Decadent writers, and schismatic exorcists, among others, culminating in the establishment of the Church of Satan by the carnival entertainer Anton Szandor LaVey. Yet it is more than just a collection of colorful characters and unlikely historical episodes. The emergence of new attitudes to Satan proves to be intimately linked to the Western Revolution, the ideological struggle for emancipation that transformed the West and is epitomized by the American and French Revolutions. It is also closely connected to secularization, that other exceptional historical process during which Western culture spontaneously renounced its traditional gods in order to enter into a self-chosen state of religious indecision. As this study seeks to show, the emergence of Satanism thus presents a shadow history of the evolution of modern civilization as we know it.Less

Children of Lucifer : The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism

Ruben van Luijk

Published in print: 2016-07-01

Satanism adopts Satan, the Judeo-Christian representative of evil, as an object of veneration. This book explores the historical origins of this extraordinary “antireligion.” While the concept of people worshipping Satan was actually an invention of Christianity to demonize its internal and external competitors, this dark stereotype created by the Church eventually came to be embraced as a positive (anti)religious identity by some in the modern West. Children of Lucifer traces the long and tortuous trajectory to this unique occurrence, a story that involves Romantic poets, radical anarchists, eccentric esotericists, Decadent writers, and schismatic exorcists, among others, culminating in the establishment of the Church of Satan by the carnival entertainer Anton Szandor LaVey. Yet it is more than just a collection of colorful characters and unlikely historical episodes. The emergence of new attitudes to Satan proves to be intimately linked to the Western Revolution, the ideological struggle for emancipation that transformed the West and is epitomized by the American and French Revolutions. It is also closely connected to secularization, that other exceptional historical process during which Western culture spontaneously renounced its traditional gods in order to enter into a self-chosen state of religious indecision. As this study seeks to show, the emergence of Satanism thus presents a shadow history of the evolution of modern civilization as we know it.

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